Punitive Damage

Name: New Zealand Film Commission
Price range: $

On 13 November 1991, Helen Todd received a phone call every parent dreads. Her 20 year old son, Kamal, had been injured, shot on a small island the world knew little about – East Timor. The nightmare of the next few days...

New Zealand Production

Feature 1999 Documentary 77.00 minutes

When 20 year old New Zealand-Malaysian student Kamal Bamadhaj travelled to East Timor to assist a human rights investigation, his last words to his mother were “I’ll be careful, Mum”. Three weeks later he was dead, shot at point blank range by the Indonesian military. Televised images of the massacre at Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili, East Timor, sent shock waves around the world. Kamal Bamadhaj, was among the estimated 271 unarmed East Timorese killed by the occupying Indonesian military.